


Keeping the Faith

by thewaynecondition



Series: Till Underverse Come [2]
Category: Chronicles of Riddick (2004)
Genre: Ghosts of Vahlei, M/M, Multi, Other, as is the planet Vahlei itself., is a story of my own creation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-11
Updated: 2016-05-14
Packaged: 2018-01-04 09:22:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 12,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1079279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewaynecondition/pseuds/thewaynecondition
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to Till Underverse Come.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It had been a little over twenty years since Vaako had any true feelings, emotional or otherwise. Now, he was feeling everything all at once and twice as quickly. There was something about his connection with Riddick that was undoing everything his purification had accomplished; his years of practiced numbness his perfect surly attitude was slowly unraveling around him. A Furyan's mate was to be their equal in every regard and the bond allowed for no seperation. If Vaako was in danger Riddick would be able to feel it now that Vaako understood fear again.

            At the moment he was hot, boiling in his flesh and sweating through the sheets of the bed. Vaako woke, throwing the covers off of his naked body and trudging toward the bathroom stepping angrily over the hellhounds. Riddick was already sitting on the edge of the tub, polishing his shiv by candlelight and waiting.

            "You're up?"

             Riddick shrugged. "You were kicking and rolling; half this sweat isn't mine. I figured we'd end up here sooner than later."

             "Forgive me. The transition back to a fully functioning body is proving more difficult than I imagined it would be," Vaako sighed.

             Riddick leaned forward and kissed Vaako just above the navel. He dipped his left hand in the tub of cool water and ran it slowly up Vaako's searing right thigh. Vaako sighed and jumped in the massive iron tub leaving Riddick's mouth and hand suspended in the air. Vaako dunked his face in the water--he was too uncomfortable to be dignified--then the unbraided ends of his hair. Slowly, he began to feel like himself again.

            "I would have you join me,"Vaako said pushing to the other side of the tub to make room though he didnt really have to. He knew how desirable he must look flushed with color from toe to forehead and silky wet in the candlelight. Riddick didnt even comment, he put his shiv down and got in.

            Riddick waded over to his mate, licked a path from Vaako's chest to his purification scars and bit down. They were puckered and red from Riddick's constant attention, but now the bite hurt in equal measure that it brought pleasure. Vaako spread his legs, but gingerly pulled away from Riddick's mouth. Riddick took some of the cool water in his mouth and moved--slowly--back toward Vaako's neck. He let the water spill over his lips and onto the scars and grounds his hips into the man beneath him.

            Vaako moaned, "Yeah," and turned his head to steal a chilled kiss. Riddick gave Vaako his icy tongue and chuckled darkly when it was nearly sucked dry. Riddick reached between them and stroked their erections together until they were both sighing in release. He pulled the plug from the drain and stood them up.

            _Happy_.

            Riddick pulled back. He'd felt a wave of pure contentment wash over them, and from the look on Vaako's face so had he.

            "Was that me?"

            "Yes. But you'll have to learn to control it or every Furyan on this ship will feel it. Dogs included. We wouldn't want anyone finding out their favorite Lord Marshal has a heart."

            "Other Furyans?"

            "We all began as something else," Riddick said kissing Vaako once more and stepping out of the tub.

 

             Riddick and Vaako spent the rest of the day in meetings planning the trip to Furya, deciding if they had enough supplies to make it or if they should land and restock. If Riddick was being honest with himself, Vaako did most of the work. The soldiers and Commanders who served under Zhylaw readily followed Vaako's will and those who were not loyal by choice feared his wrath just as much as his words. Riddick still remembered Vaako's fisrt day as the ship's second Lord Marshal. He stalked about like the war lords of old; men who answered only to the King of the land. Vaako and Nikta walked the halls striking down anyone who so much as took what couldve been an idle breath against them. Riddick watched from the throne, thoroughly entertained and completely enthralled. They fucked violently that night just the way Vaako liked it. From the look Vaako was giving the ships Chief of Supplies, they were in for an encore tonight.

            They were in the strategy room, the very same room where Vaako himself attempted to sneak up on Zhylaw and failed. Vaako was standing at the head of the table in Zhylaw's stead staring at the up raised model of Furya with Gracchus at the other end telling him there was no hope for their journey without making a stop on Vahlei a nearly deserted planet left only for refugees—many of which lost their homes to Necromonger attacks—and missionaries. If there was any planet Vaako did not want to raid it was Vahlei. Riddick watched from the door, goggles in hand and eerie eyes staring down all in attendance.

            "You stood before us not two days ago and said 'we can make it. Our supplies are well in tact and our battalion is ready'. What changed Gracchus?" Vaako asked.

            Gracchus was not a soldier. He was thinker, no better than a Purifier really, and he spluttered at the displeasure of his Lord Marshalls.

            "Speak, you great waste of blood and air!" Vaako spit between his teeth. All of the minor movements of the men assembled had coalesced to make a steady metal thrum. When Vaako spoke they stilled. The room fell silent and Gracchus fell to his knees.

            "In the night, My Lord, twelve of our largest supply ships were flown out of the ranks of the armada. I was threatened, My Lord. I feared for my life and the life of my companion."

            Vaako laughed and he could hear Riddick's deep chuckle behind him. Surely they were thinking the same thing even though they werent connected in that way as of yet.

            "Do you think your Lord Marshals are fools? Did you think we would not notice!?" Vaako released his pulse gun and shot Gracchus into the far wall grin still in tact. Riddick stepped to his side.

            "Who could our people possibly fear more than us?"Riddick asked though he already knew.

            Vaako looked to his men, they stood at attention. "I want my former Dame found. She will be headed back toward Helion Prime; it’s the closest in this system that she can reach with one Frigate and supply cargo. I want the conspirators dead, all of them."

            The men began to move but Riddick held up his hand. "Wait. Bring the woman to me."

            The men filed out with their orders. Vaako slammed his fist down against the table, the model of Furya stuttered in its place. Riddick chuckled again leaning against the table carelessly.

            "Why didn’t I kill her when I had the chance?" Vaako asked more annoyed now than furious. It was like an irritating tickle beneathe Riddick's skin and he wanted it to stop. He reached out and gripped Vaako's forearm.

            "Come here," Riddick pulled Vaako until Vaako was leaning fully against Riddick's body, “When she's back, we'll have our fun together."

            Vaako sighed but relaxed in the circle of Riddick's arms. He nodded once and kissed the waiting lips.

            “Take me back to bed before I kill our entire armada."

            Riddick growled low in his chest. "That's my boy."

 


	2. Chapter 2

When Riddick woke up the bed was empty and he felt nauseous. All of the hounds were awake. Avek and Maru were flanking the bottom of the bed but Nikta was scratching at the chamber doors leaving deep gashes in the finish. Her scales were red but she wasn't angry, she was whining in distress. Riddick threw the covers off and went to her. She looked up at him with wide eyes and slammed her hide against the door. Riddick moved to reach for the metal handles and a sharp pain alighted in his side as though the scar Vaako's blade created was opening itself. Riddick knew this scar was a key piece in their connection and if he was feeling the pain then that meant dangerous things for Vaako. Riddick trusted Vaako to be able to defend himself against any opposition except a fully planned ambush.

        The hall outside their chambers was empty but reeked of blood and sweat. Riddick dashed down the hall followed by Nikta, Avek and Maru who rise to follow their leader once it was clear something had angered him. The hounds trotted passed Riddick and jumped over the railing separating the upper level from the Basilica where the thrones sat at center and Vaako, a few yards away, sat surrounded by blood and bodies. Riddick followed the dogs over the railing and landed on his feet just as gracefully. Without a pause, he pulled a dagger out of the body of the nearest corpse and struck a Necro approaching Vaako from behind.

        Vaako looked at the dead body then at Riddick with a grin. “I could've handled that myself.”

        “You're welcome,” Riddick replied. The hounds shifted the mountain of bodies out of the way so that Riddick could help Vaako up from the floor. A steady stream of blood rushed from his side, staining the slim skin suit he always wore under his armor and the marble floors. “Where is our Dame then?”

        A derisive cackle broke out across the ship, snapping Riddick's attention back towards the thrones. She was shackled between them with her arms outstretched like an offering. “I dealt with her first,” Vaako said and she rolled her eyes.

        “Dealt with me? That's my wound you bear, Dear Ex-Husband. To think I'd live to see the day our Lord Marshall nearly bested by a woman even a women as glorious as me. You are becoming a _breeder_ after all.” She spat.

        Vaako sneered but Riddick chuckled as he helped Vaako into the throne to her right. There was no one else on the ship who spoke the way she did, especially not to him or Vaako. No one else on the ship had an ounce of her wit or biting cleverness and for all of her faults, Riddick had to say it'd been too quiet without her on board. He'd missed her and told her so. Her eyes bulged to match the size of Vaako's and whatever vicious retort she was about to make died on her tongue. Riddick was a charmer and he knew when he was dealing with a snake. She relaxed slightly and her scent changed. Vaako's nostrils flared, registering it the moment Riddick did.

            “You brought me back to flatter me, Breeder?”

            “I brought you back because you're a thief but I like your style and your husband--”

            “Ex-husband,” they sounded in unison.

            “—Killed our strategist,” Riddick continued as though neither had spoke. Vaako's eyes grew impossibly wider. He could not _possibly_ be thinking what Vaako _thought_ he was thinking. A sharp _No_ resounded in mind of Riddick and the hounds and this time Vaako was not surprised by their reaction. The hounds tucked their tails and shifted away, but Selune was talking before Riddick got the chance.

            “Are you offering me a job, Breeder? After I just tried to murder your consort?” She asked with a raise to her elegant eyebrows.

            “Mate, “Riddick corrected her simply, “and I’m thinking about it. Either you stay and behave like a lady or you remain shackled between our thrones like an ornament. The people of the ship will see you and you will be more shamed than you ever were. Personally, I don’t think you fit the décor Zhylaw was going for. As our strategist you would receive some status, if not all that were accustomed to.”

            She rose her face away from him and ground her teeth together, stubbornness and pride rippling through her very core. “May I have a day to think about it, Lord Marshalls?” She cut her eyes at Vaako, but he didn’t look back.

            Riddick moved to help Vaako to his feet and the hounds flanked them on either side. He nodded to her and said of course before taking Vaako away. He looked his shoulder at his ex-wife and shook his head at Riddick, “She’ll never agree.”

            Riddick’s chuckle was deep and genuine. “Not at first.”

 

 

            By the end of the week, they’d moved her four times. Each new location was more public than the last and at each new location there was no shortage of Necromonger from her past willing to jeer and point at her new place of abasement when she had once been so high above them. Vaako looked up at her on the fourth day. He’d talked it over with Riddick (more like argued but that was beside the point) and he agreed that she was in fact, among the brightest aboard the ship despite her treachery. She’d been chained at the entrance of the purifying chamber where all new converts and purifiers would see her. She’d not been allowed to change, to bathe, to use the lavatory and she reeked.

            “Why must you always be so stubborn?” He asked her.

            “Better than being weak, a sheep led by blind herders.”

            He tilted his head back so that he could see her eyes, his braids falling off of his shoulder. “I don’t understand you. I am a Lord Marshall now. I have everything you always pushed me to have and still you are not satisfied.” When she didn’t reply Vaako continued. “Perhaps it is because you are not the one by my side and the only glory you ever saw in me was the glory you could reap for yourself.”

            She tilted her head down, her eyes unexpectedly soft, they drew him closer. “There was a time I loved you.”

            “How brief was that time?”

            “It was before we were wed.”

            Vaako couldn’t remember ever noticing the Dame before the week Zhylaw introduced them and demanded he court her. He crossed his arms and asked, “When?”

            “You had just killed Fantl for his position as Head Guard. You were so young and everyone thought Fantl was…invincible. It was the middle of the square on the basilica, the same place you battled Riddick and everyone was watching including me. I pushed through the crowd to see it and you rose up over his body covered in blood with Fantl’s blade in your hand. Zhylaw nodded at you and the men acknowledged you and all the women wanted you, but I loved you.”

            “Why?”

            “Because you had done something everyone said was impossible. You killed a man they called invincible and Im addicted to power,” she answered him honestly. “I wanted you to kill Zhylaw so badly because everyone said it couldn’t be done, that he was a ghost, that he was…something else, but I knew you could do it. So I pushed you.”

            “But I didn’t do it.”

            Selune sighed as though the conversation had sapped her of her energy. “I know.”

            “Lord Marshall Riddick did.”

            “Yes.”

            They both looked away from each other. Vaako peered into the purifying chamber. A week into their reign, Vaako and Riddick announced the trip to Furya (whatever was left of it) and that purifications were no longer mandatory. Of course most of the ship continued to have them regularly because it was a part of a routine that they were used to, but many had stopped as well. You could tell who was who. Some people on the ship were beginning to have color again while the rest remained the ghost army that Vaako had always known. Selune looked out over the ship to the second level where Riddick was leaning against the railing. His silver eyes were hidden behind his goggles but they were on her. She could feel them like a weight. She wasn’t stupid. She knew neither of them truly trusted her but they were presenting her with an opportunity to gain favor, status on the ship once more. Just by saying yes she would be above all of the people who shamed her over the past four days, she would have constant audience with the Lord Marshalls. It was more than she’d had before. At any sign of a slip they would feed her to the hounds in pieces, she knew that too.

            “I’ll do it,” she answered without breaking her gaze on Riddick. Selune knew that he could hear her or at least read her lips. His own lips curled on one side.

            Vaako looked up at her. There was still a hint of surprise in his eyes. That would’ve pleased her had she been looking. She liked to be unpredictable. “I will have them let you down immediately. In two hours, you will meet your Lord Marshalls in the strategy room for a briefing. Do not be late,” he ordered and turned to walk away.

            “Vaako” she called.

            He stopped but didn’t turn to her.

            “See you then.”


	3. Chapter 3

Selune was there as promised. She looked like a new creature. Her hair was pulled back in a severe ponytail, her makeup was effortless, her lashes burned off in the usual manner and kohl applied around the edge. She’d been reinstated in the quarters she and Vaako had shared as a couple, which meant a blissful reunion with her wardrobe. The dress she wore now was an olive green that sat wonderfully against her cocoa skin. Spikes adorned the shoulders and matching silver bracelets shackled the length of her hair. Riddick inhaled deeply. She smelled like Jasmine and a spice he was unfamiliar with. Beautiful.

            Seeing her now, Vaako could hardly believe they’d had her hoisted amongst the rafters only two hours previous. Riddick entered the room and smiled as if he didn’t notice the drastic change. Neither of the men was surprised. She was seated against the table, a model of Furya floating behind the small of her back. Her gaze was focused out, down toward the center of the ship at the thrones but there was no doubt she knew they had entered.

            “We have two options. Either we stop in Vahlei and restock or we track straight to Furya and hope that there are enough supplies to be found on its _barren_ surface to get off the planet when you’re done exploring,” she announced still not looking at them.

            Riddick walked around the table and stopped directly in front of her face. “Funny, that only sounds like one choice to me.”

            “A forced hand more like,” Vaako added, “because of your foolishness.”

            Finally, she turned leveling him with a gaze as sharp as acid eating through wood. “I brought back the supplies I took with me save for one small ship with fuel and stores of food. That ship was blown by the idiots you sent to retrieve me. With it, we could have made a round trip, but without…”

            Vaako leaned against the table and waved his hand over the floating grey planets. They shifted, Furya disappearing into the water like cloud that made up the tables surface and Vahlei appeared, an entire system behind it. “Stopping in Vahlei was our last strategist’s idea.”

            “Gracchus, if I remember right, the Chief of Supplies. He was a smart man,” Selune said with a smirk, “where is he?”

            Riddick chuckled, “Nikta tells me he tasted wonderfully.”

            Her smirk crumbled.

            “Look. I paid my dues. You brought me back, and now I’ve agreed to help. I still have no idea why you trust me—“

            “I don’t,” Riddick commented simply.

            She continued as though he hadn’t. “But, I’ve swallowed my pride. I’m trying to help my Lord Marshals. Stopping in Vahlei is the safest bet we have as a people and as an armada. You may think it selfish of me, but I’d rather not be stuck in space forever.”

            Riddick and Vaako exchanged looks and nodded once.

            “We agree with you.”

            “Good. Turn us around then, _my_ _Lords_.”

            She sauntered out of the room, leaving a haze of Jasmine and spice behind her. Her heels clicked against the floors and not for the first time did she make Riddick think of the hounds, how _animal_ she could be.

 

 

            Vahlei.

            Even a day out, Vaako could see the surface of the planet. Near constant visits from pioneers since the planets discovery had nearly sapped her completely of vegetation and water. From space, Vahlei was a brown ball of mud flecked with greens and blues like a child rolling clay in the grass. White clouds misted around the atmosphere, deceptively peaceful. The storm clouds must’ve been hiding on the dark side. He looked harder as if he could see the people milling about the surface and the dangers that lurked among them.

            “I want you to tell me a story,” Riddick said approaching from behind.

            “Are you reading my mind again?” Vaako asked without mirth. He had indeed been thinking of a story, one he’d heard as a young convert, one he hoped he’d never have to test the truth of.

            Riddick gave no answer.

            “ _The Ghosts of Vahlei_. It’s a story they tell to children to frighten them. Unfortunately, it also happens to be true. In the story, a ship crash lands on Vahlei and the passengers are brutally murdered by refugees who wanted their cargo. Gold, food, weapons are all stolen and the bodies are left to rot in the sun. The souls of the passengers don’t leave the planet; they haunt it and kill anyone crossing the shipping docks as an act of vengeance. We will not be excluded from that.”

            Riddick thought for a moment then almost out of nowhere laughed, “You tell that story to children?”

            “To frighten them, yes.”

            “How does anyone get in then?”

            “The same way we do everything,” Vaako answered turning away from the sight, “fight. Zhylaw had his faults, but he wanted to conquer and he was efficient. He had our weapons technician create a weapon that could disperse the energies of incorporeal beings.” He hesitated and turned his body fully to Riddick. Since their meeting with Selune it had been a month and in that month, Vaako’s color had returned to him in full. It was pleasant surprise for Riddick to go to bed in the evening and wake up to an olive toned Vaako blushing in the heat.

 

            _Ali always lit too many candles. The young boy was one of the few Riddick trusted to enter their chambers and fewer still whom the dogs trusted to feed them and clean up after them. He always lit too many candles. Riddick threw the covers off of himself and looked over at his mate. It was like looking at a stranger. The only identifying mark on him, were the tangled braids and the matching scar on his side. Vaako had gold skin layered in sweat and a slight reddening across the high cheekbones and chest._

_Riddick growled possessively and rolled over on top of him, licking the sweat from Vaako’s sternum up to his neck. He kissed Vaako awake nipping at ripe pink lips until they parted for him. Riddick ravaged him until they were both sweaty messes and the only thing left to do was blow the candles out and start over again in the cool dark._

Now, Vaako looked wary, the skin between in eyebrows creased. His eyes were dark and distant, but the addition of color in his skin kept him from looking like a cringing corpse. “What’s wrong?” Riddick asked.

            “We only have ten guns. Zhylaw decommissioned their creation when he realized destroying Helion Prime would be the fastest way to end the universe and a trip to the Ghost Planet was not needed. We will lose more men than is necessary.”

            “Then we take only who we need. I was never fond of crowds anyway. Too many liabilities, too many people slowing me down.”

            “We can’t all be Furyan.”

Riddick’s responding hum was thoughtful. He drifted toward the doors and stopped. “Can’t we?”          


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw: major character death

Vaako and Riddick stood at the entrance to the loading docks with seven other men. They were nine in total. Selune, watching from a safe distance back, had demanded that they leave a gun with her on the ship and surprisingly it seemed like the best idea she’d had since her return. Dark wind swept passed the doors of the loading dock, then, as the doors began to slowly travel down, into the ship itself. Vaako imagined he could make out leering faces here and there, the possibility of sharpened fangs and bright eyes in the curl of the mist. The man to his right, lifted his gun higher and Vaako knew it was not his imagination playing tricks with the adolescent memories he still bore.

            “The dock is fifty feet from that door,” Vaako announced, “Once you step out, if you stop moving, you’ll die.”

            “One speed,” Riddick called and they all knew what that meant.

            He charged forward and ducked. Out of the mists, a body formed, loose in its composition and determined in its anger. The ax in its hands left a silver trail in the air as it came down. It sheared the air above Riddick’s head missing him and striking a soldier behind him, cleaving the man in two. Riddick rolled to the right and shot. The gun glowed white and pulsed, blowing a hole in the attacking form that reminded Vaako of all the times he’d blown the smoke of incense out of his face. The form glowed blue, screamed like the winds of a hurricane and dispersed.

            “Let’s move!”

            The men raced out and surrounded Vaako and Riddick on both sides. In seconds there were flashes of white light, screams that were both human and ghost. Dust kicked up and they ran forward as quickly as possible. The heavy boots of the soldiers echoed against the wood of the dock, this sound almost as ominous as the rest because with every moment there are less and less pairs, the sound more hollow as they’re picked off one at a time.

            A shadow rose up over Vaako and he turned on his heel.

            Selune saw the shadow rise up over Vaako before the commander did himself. His movement toward it brought his chest flush with the apparition’s blade. His blood sprung free from his chest as the apparition pulled its weapon back.

            Riddick, looking up from his own place in the fray, roared, “No!”

            Selune screamed. She burst out of the doors of the loading dock and sprinted down the path toward her falling Lord Marshall, toward her husband. She shot the gun that Riddick had given her, dispersing the energies of the ghost. Riddick caught Vaako and hauled him up and across the line of safety, reaching back and dragging her with him.

            Riddick could hear her wailing but couldn’t bring himself to stop moving until they were well into safety. Looking back, he realized that he’d lost all of his men. He would not lose his mate as well.

            “Get the armor off, I can heal him.”

            “You can’t.”

            “Just let me!”

            “Selune, nothing can save him! He wasn’t stabbed by a mortal blade!”

            Riddick set Vaako down with his back against the side of what looked to be an abandoned trading station. He stripped Vaako of his chest plate to placate Selune and achieved the exact opposite. There was blood and light pouring from Vaako’s chest, his breathing was nothing more than shallow gasps. The commander forced his eyes open and put his hands on Riddick and Selune each. She clenched his igners in her own and Riddick brough his hand to his mates hair, gripping the braids fiercely.

            “Vaako—“

            “So help me, if the last thing I hear from you is ‘are you with me’…”

            Riddick snatched off his goggles and looked hard at Vaako, silver eyes shining with light and tears and Furyan anger. All Vaako could feel was the love rolling between them like a tangible force. He sent the wave back as strongly as he could before turning to Selune and rubbing his fingers over her cheeks and over the whip line of her pony tail. He had loved her too and she deserved to know that. She was the one who had faith in him when no one else did. She believed that Zhylaw was weak, that he could be the one to do the impossible and even when he failed her, even after everything that he’d put her through she came back to his side.

            “Rule well.”

            Riddick shook his head, “I was only doing this for you.”

            “Live for me. No more running; take us to the threshold.”

            Riddick pressed his mouth to Vaako’s, kissing him until he could no longer feel the lips pressing back, until the pulse in his mark faded away and the connection was lost.

.                       .                       .                       .                       .                       .                       .                      

            The first settler that encountered them in Vahlei knew immediately who they were. He saw a ship waiting on the docks. He saw a dark man holding a fallen soldier, the woman at his side had blood in her hair and stained on the ornaments therein. They had to be warriors, perhaps come to trade, perhaps to conquer. Who else would brave the ghosts?

            The man stood and went to them, approaching carefully as they came over the hill into the yellow sun.

             “Who are you?” He asked, but none of the survivors seemed capable of speaking. Sadness hung over them, and he knew then that the soldier in the dark man’s arms was more than just that. He pointed over his shoulder. “The inns are that way.”

            Selune thanked him and they moved passed. She held the door open for Riddick when they arrived at the inns and leveled a look of pure hatred on the innkeeper when he tried to stop them from entering with Vaako’s body. He backed away from her and let them in. She snatched a key card off of the wall and let them into a room at the east wing of the inn. Riddick lay Vaako on the bed ever so gently and slumped to the floor. It was the most defeated that Selune had ever seen him look.

            “I’m sorry,” she said and it sounded to him like the first and last time she would ever say those words to anyone.

            “Me too,” he answered and she knew that for him it was.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay. Thank you for sticking with me!

            They took turns watching over Vaako's body. Selune with muted prayers that Riddick was surprised that she knew, and Riddick with constant, silent vigil. During his watch, Riddick moved so little that Selune could imagine the new statues that would be erected in his name. Their hardness, their stillness, how even the marble could not be this perfectly immovable.

            If one of them was beside him then the other was out in the town getting supplies for the trip, the trip that after several hours of fighting, Selune convinced Riddick to complete.

            Vahlei was a planet relatively the size of Mars with an inhabitable area the size of an old Earth state people once called Maine. Word of the arrivals traveled quickly through the people and by the third day, Riddick's brave entrance and tragic loss was the only story that the people wanted to hear. They recognized his face and left things at the door of the inn for him and Selune, votive figures for Vaako's soul.

            It was sweet and Riddick fucking hated it.

            "I know where you can find fuel."

            Riddick did not budge though the voice and its owner appeared on a gust of wind. He had been watching the ship hovering at the other end of the loading dock, a pack over his shoulder.

            "But you cannot do it alone."

            "Aereon. Where was your wisdom months ago when we were planning this trip?" His anger was barely controlled as he turned to look at her. "Where were you to tell us that Vaako would die?"

            "In mourning."

            Riddick registered striking Aereon only after he heard the sound of his palm against her face, felt the sting of it in his hand,saw the way she jerked away from him. He had expected for his fingers and his rage to ghost through her, to deny him the satisfaction of violence. But they didn't. Aereon allowed herself to remain solid, allowed him to hit her. And that was her apology.

            Riddick stepped back, slightly astonished at the sight of purple bruises rising on her pale cheekbone, but he said nothing.

            "You will find," she continued, "an abandoned oil rig not far from the edge of the encampment. It will not be unlike your trip with one Captain Fry. This time, you will take the Dame."

            "So, you know about Fry..."

            "Yes."

            "Then you know how she died."

            "For you."

            "And you want me to take Selune into the same situation." He turned from the sight of the ship and trudged down into town, her light steps beside his.

            "She is stronger than Fry was. I believe that this time, fate has better plans."

            "Better plans than death?"

            "To start."

            Riddick paused on his walk. The pack on his shoulder was heavy with merchandise. Some found, some purchased in the main market but most offered to him by the people. There were outdated navigation instruments, star maps of planets long forgotten, trinkets of rare materials that could be broken down and repurposed aboard the ship--if Vaako was there to see it done.

            "Selune can't come with me. I'm not leaving him behind."

            "With your permission....I would take him back to the ship."

            "How?"

            "The dead cannot harm one of their own and they cannot harm me. Let me take him back to his people. He is safe among them as well."

            "Safe among the dead."

            "Yes."

            Aereon took lead of their walk. She glided through the town, keeping her chin parallel to the ground, her eyes ahead, even as the inhabitants tried to touch her and marveled at her, whispered the word “witch”. She had heard it before, and would again before it was her time to die. The innkeeper said nothing as she wafted down the hall, silenced by a look from Riddick, one of the many they’d shared in the past week.

            “Maybe you should let me announce you,” Riddick said as Aereon pressed open their door.

            “The Dame never needs a reason to strike out at me and now she has one. I will allow her the same courtesy that I allowed you—“

            The door swung in and slammed sharply against the opposite wall. Selune stood in the doorway. Aereon had never seen the woman undone. Always, she maintained an air of effortless authority and beauty. But now, with her husband’s body lying prone behind her, the Dame looked as though she’d underwent a cruel ordeal. Her hair was free of its bracelets, knotted in a thick frame around her face. Her eyes sat over heavy purpling bags and a drooping mouth with gnawed corners.

            “ _What_ ,” she hissed, “ _is this witch doing here_!?”

            Selune spat and it landed over Riddick’s bruises on Aereon’s cheek. He was quick not to let it go further, stepping between the two women and catching Selune’s fist as it was slicing through the air. He dragged her back into the room with one arm, indicating for Aereon to enter with the other. Riddick sat in the chair beside Vaako without releasing Selune even as she screamed and spat. Aereon wiped her face.

            She stepped further into the room and approached the bed where Vaako lie. Whatever had been in place to preserve the bodies of the dead Necromongers, whatever science made their healing so absolute was still at work on his corpse. He had not decayed in the past week other than the fraying ends of his braids, his skin returning to a blue, ghostly hue, and the stiffness in his limbs.

            “Don’t you touch him!”

            “I would not dare,” Aereon answered seriously. “Not without the consent of you both.”

            Selune settled into a snarl. It was the natural way of her face whenever the elemental was around, “You do not have mine.”

            “Selune,” Riddick said, gently squeezing her waist. “Let her take him. The other Commanders can help him better than we can.”

            “No! He cannot leave our side. I never trusted the others. They all wanted him dead for his position at your side. I left because I was angry and so jealous that he made it without me,” a tear fell down her face but she continued on as though it did not happen, as though she could not remember what it was like to address an emotion as strong as sadness, “I will not leave him again.

            Riddick reached up and caught the tear with his thumb. He turned her toward him and took off the goggles covering his own face. “That was before he was Lord Marshal. His people worship him. And they know better than to fuck with me by now. Nothing’s going to happen.”

            “You promise?”

            “…..Yeah.”

            Selune looked into his eyes and through the violet haze of his vision he could see her give in to the idea. She peeled away from him and walked into the bathroom, giving a resigned wave to Aereon as she passed.

            Aereon touched her hand to Vaako’s shoulder gently. “Carry him outside for me.”

            Riddick nodded. He slipped his arms under Vaako’s shoulders and thighs and lifted him effortlessly from the bed. The braids fell over his forearm as Vaako’s head lolled back. Riddick did not look down. He held the cool body close to his own and followed Aereon out to the docks once more.

            The wind kicked up around them until it was blowing dust around them. It should have been enough to take Riddick off of his feet, but it slipped around them as though guided. He looked to Aereon and knew that it was.

            “Release him,” she instructed. “The wind will bring him with me.”

            Riddick was less inclined to follow that directive but slowly, very slowly, he let his fingers slip from Vaako’s body. The wind kicked up again and as she said, he glided to her side.

            “You will find the abandoned oil rig just three hundred kilometers outside of the camps. Do be careful Lord Marshal. Your people cannot lose you as well. I will tell them that you are mourning the loss of your mate and when you return you will take them to the threshold. They will love you as he did, as he always will.”

            “We’re not headed to the threshold. We’re goin’ to Furya.”

            Her smile was small and too quick to catch, “Right.”

            Aereon walked like a wisp up the dock with Vaako at her side and waited patiently for the doors to open. As they did, Riddick could see the reception of sad faces waiting to take Vaako in, the hounds whining at their feet. The legion vast had come to bury their king.

.                       .                       .                       .                       .                       .                       .                      

            Riddick had the right mind to leave the Dame behind. When he returned to the inn she was standing over the bed looking no better than before. Their seemed to be a gaping hole between them now, over which he could not reach her, too far around for him to save her. She looked at him as he began to pack what little possessions would needed for the trip and straightened up.

            “I am coming with you,” she said snatching the blade from its sheath on his thigh and slicing her dress clean in half. “Find me clothes. Like yours. I will not be useless.”

            “You don’t have anything to prove to me.”

            “This is not about you.”

            “I’m not a big fan of being responsible for the safety of women. I haven’t been very successful in the past.”

            Selune picked up the tatters of her dress and threw it on the bed.

            “The way I see it,” she said, “if I die, you have one less thing to worry about on your trip. Now bring me some clothes…Please.”

            A wounded animal always made quick work of licking its open gashes, and finding a safe place to heal. Selune didn’t make it easy to like her but somehow they had become each other’s safe place. They very idea would have turned Vaako’s stomach if he were there to witness it.

            Riddick nodded to Selune, he picked up one of the ornaments that used to adorn her hair from its place on the floor and held it out for her. In silence, she took it. He touched his fingers to her wrist, then over the blade still in her hands. It looked good there, locked between elegant but deadly fingers. He left it with her and walked toward the door.

            “I saw a shop not far from here. They should have something to fit you. I’ll be back.”

            “Then I will see you soon.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay. This story is a lot more slow burn than I originally planned and it'll be the longest thing I've ever written on here, but trust me there is a plan and it will be completed. Thanks for sticking with me!

“I can see it.” Selune brought a pair binoculars down from her eyes and turned to see Riddick coming up the hill behind her. Three hundred kilometers west of them, just as Aereon had said,  the oil rig stood in relief bracketed by cliff faces.

“So can I,” Riddick  answered without needing the binoculars at all.

Selune stood on the very edge of the encampment with her back to the people. Her new outfit was nothing compared to the gowns she was used to in Necropolis but somehow she preferred the black cut off shorts, fitted olive tank top and steel toed boots to the brocaded dresses and sharp ornaments. At least for now.These clothes told more of who she was than the costumes of the Elite. Selune was a warrior, a strategist. She did not need saving but she was not without her flaws. She was done being a conniver, a social climber, a trophy wife....

Selune blamed it on her extended time spent with Riddick and nothing more. She'd stepped into the shower and washed away her days of mourning, unknotted her hair and piled it into a tight bun atop her head.

Riddick watched the people flit around her like mosquitoes as he approached with their supplies for the trip strapped across his back. She batted them away as she waited for him framed in a shaft of afternoon light. He rolled an old dirt bike to her, filled with the dregs of fuel from a settler’s stove in the town, and no sooner had he thrown a leg over the seat that she was climbing on behind him, arms around his waist, knees gripping tight to his sides.

“Ready?” He asked.

“Go.”

Dirt kicked off of the back wheels and launched them forward into the desert. The sun beat down on the tracks of other vehicles that had attempted the journey out to the rig. All went one way. Toward it. None came back.

Small animals skid out of their path and burrowed back into their holes. Riddick kicked the bike into high gear. Most of the world had tunneled into one field of vision for Selune but she knew he could see exactly where they were going, his goggles pulled down over his eyes. She hid her face between his shoulder blades and held on for the duration of the ride. When he finally pulled to a stop, she could feel the engine vibrating up her feet, shaking her thighs, her core where it pressed to the small of Riddick’s back.

Over his shoulder the eastern cliff threw shade onto the rig a few yards ahead on the left. At the right an old dilapidated building stood gutted from the inside leaving nothing but beams that looked as though they’d been heated in some places, and crumpled in others.

“What now?” She asked.

“Now we find something that will attach to the back of this bike and stick as many oil drums on it as we can.”

“Think they’ll have enough?”

“Yeah. That’s the least of my worries.”

There was no time to ask what he meant before they were moving again, rolling slowly onto the site and weaving through the abandoned encampment. As they got closer, Riddick took one look at the building and amended his plans to camp there at night for shelter. As daunting as the cliffs seemed, they were a better option than whatever had done this. Whatever might still be inside. He’d seen enough not question whether or not something living might be responsible. He lifted his goggles up and peered into the dark for a long moment before settling them back on again.

“Nothing.”

Selune didn’t hear. She was too busy staring up at the metal cage that housed the rotary cable and the drill that drove deep into the earth before more machinery she had never bothered to learn the names of brought oil back to the surface. It alone stood untouched on the land. “Aren’t we lucky,” she whispered.

Riddick rolled on, pulling to a stop at the base of the cliff and shutting off the ignition. “They way I see it, we’ve only got a couple of hours left of sunlight then this whole valley goes dark. Might as well stop here for now and trek back bright and early on foot to save fuel.”

“Why not take what we can now back into the town? Come back in the morning?”

“This bike has two trips in it. Here and home. The whole town is about to run out of power because no one is dumb enough to come out here for more oil.” He explained.

Selune swung her leg over the back end of the bike and peered around slowly, “So glad that we are _dumb_ enough.”

****  
  


Vaako would never believe she was climbing the side of a cliff. Selune thought about him as the rock edges cut into her palms and Riddick hassled her to pick up her speed. She imagined him shaking his head and giving her a curt “Sure” if she ever tried to relay the experience. To him she had been glass. Edged and dangerous, yes, but glass all the same. Breakable. 

“Move it, Princess,” Riddick jeered from above.

“Bite me!” She called up, finding another foothold and pushing up. Her hands were bleeding, the pain would have slowed her further if they were not also numb to all feeling.

When she was close enough, Riddick reached down and tugged her the rest of the way onto the landing. The sun disappeared behind the horizon and once again it was just the two of them in the dark, waiting for a plan neither of them truly believed in to pan out. Selune put her back against the rocks but Riddick paced the edge, watching the oil rig the way a hawk might stalk a rabbit below.

She sighed, “You should get some sleep. We’ve got a busy morning ahead of us.”

“You sleep. I’ll keep watch.”

“All night?”

No answer.

“Listen,” she grit her teeth, “you’re making me nervous. At least sit down.”

He obliged her, sitting on the very edge of the landing and peering over. She turned away from him lest she be compelled to push him over. She laid flat, pushing small rocks out of the way until there was nothing but a sandy surface beneath her back, the pack of supplies held on top of her belly. Constant winds kicked up the smell of gasoline from below so thickly that the scent quickly moved from disgusting to just another annoyance. In a few long moments she was drifting into a fitful sleep. And of course, dreaming of Vaako.

_“Who is he?” Selune leaned over the egg shaped capsule in which lay a man covered in shimmering gossamer. Beneath the silvery sheet, he was old--or simply withered. Tissue paper skin seemingly on the verge of tearing, and the brittleness of his bones far more prominent due to his constant writhing. He appeared to see her. Or to see passed her. Vaako stepped up behind her and gripped her shoulder causing her to  jump._

_“These are the Quasi-Deads,” he said as four more gilded capsules slid slowly out of the wall, corpselike men and women in each. Vaako moved around the chamber, touching each one as though acknowledging them with respect. Selune busied herself tracing her fingers over the engravings on the capsules, Necromonger history like all of the art aboard the ship. She recognized the tale of Krill in the reliefs._   
_“The psychics that won Baylock his war.”_

_Vaako nodded, “That’s right. Put your ear to his lips.”_

_“What?”_

_“Go on.”_

_Her heels clicked on the stone floors as she shifted and crouched low to the telepaths mouth. She could already hear the soft shuttering of his breathing, the way it rattled in his lungs before escaping into the air._

_“Can you hear me?” The Quasi whispered suddenly and again Selune flinched. Across the room, Vaako laughed._

_“I suppose I have my answer.”_

_Selune straightened her dress and whispered back, “Is this where you bring all the women you’ve been courting?”_

_“There’s is only you.”_

_“Should I believe that? The Commander of the armada must surely have more suitors than just me.”_

_“Is there a woman or man aboard this vessel that you would not kill for my hand?”_

_She looked across the chamber and found Vaako already staring back. She answered and he could read her lips even before his Quasi spoke the word aloud, “None.”_

_Vaako nodded. “That is why there is only you. Dame Vaako.”_

_“I...You have made your choice then?”_

_“If it please you.”_

_“It does. Dear Husband.”_

_Selune…._

_“Yes?”_

“Selune!”

Her eyes snapped open. Riddick’s voice, the sound of a scuffle and rapid clicking snapped her back to the present. Riddick sounded panicked and it took her a moment for that to register having never heard it before. Twisting quickly in the dirt, she got to her feet. Riddick’s back was pressed to the rocks, his feet kicking for purchase, but she could barely see him behind the massive form of a Beetle trying its best to get its pincers around Riddick’s throat. Never in her life had she seen a beetle the size of a man, let alone standing on its back legs and trying to kill. But she found herself moving toward it, through the fear and surprise, the blade he had given in hand as she charged forward sinking it into the beetle’s back. All six of its legs swiped out at her then, the beetle screeching and clicking in pain as she dragged the blade down its thorax. The beatle spit and Selune had to duck or else be burned by the acid as it landed on the rocks.

Black gore began to sprout from Selune’s puncture and she sliced the bug over and over until Riddick was able to set his feet and twist the beetles head off using the pincers as leverage. More of the viscous black liquid sprayed over them both as he kicked the beetle off of the edge of the cliff and watched it fall back into the valley. Selune wiped her face and regretted it as she felt the gore smear. It was thick but far too slick to be just blood.

“What is this?” She slumped back down.

“Gasoline.” Riddick said, “they’ve been drinking it since the settlers built the rig, thats why no one comes out here anymore. There are more. And if we turn on the drill, they’ll come to the surface like that scout did.”

“So what do we do?”

“We let them come. And we drain them dry.”

****  
  



	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> //Thanks for your patience. This chapter is a long time coming. Enjoy!

Selune hated this idea. She let Riddick know with no shortage of passion. As they climbed down the cliff to the base, she tried to coax him into an alternative mode of thinking, but he was set. And in the case of facing giant man eating creatures, he was the more experienced between the two of them. Even as her feet set down on solid ground again, Selune trudged behind him rather than her usual saunter. Her hands clenched at her sides and with a mere glance she could see that his were as well. Perhaps he was not so sure in himself as he seemed. It was a less than convincing thought, all told, as their boots shifted the gravel filling the night with its sole source of noise. She picked up her pace as they approached the drill and put her hand on the switch waiting for Riddick’s lead.

  
Riddick jogged over the collapsed building and tore down a section of gnarled metal from the siding. In his hands it looked like railroad tracks but Selune guessed it had once been the grate of a window, protection for those working inside. Riddick dragged it across the sand to their bike and in minutes had retwisted the section into a usable track. His fingers bled against the jagged edges of metal, but he didn’t stop until it could hold a barrel of gasoline, two, and so on until Riddick nearly ran out of space. Six barrels. It was enough for one Necromonger voyager perhaps. The armada would be staying here.

  
“What about those?”  Selune pointed to two large drums beside the rig.

“Empty,” he said rolling them toward her. “Can you fight?”

“I can do well enough.”

“Then these won’t be empty for long. Turn on the drill.”

  
Coming out of his mouth, that could mean anything. Selune nodded and hit the switch. The machine groaned to life like an old man working battered joints. The drill lowered itself into the earth, shaking the entire valley, disturbing the cliff face, the building beside them, waking the dead planet. Selune knew then what would follow. She backed away from the drill, taking the barrel with her and drew her blade. Her breaths came high and tight in her chest, ragged with excitement, jerky with fear.

There was a moment of abject stillness before they came. Selune looked to Riddick and he smiled at her before bringing his goggles down over his eyes.  
The clicking came first, pincers at the ready, a herd of scurrying feet against rock. They burst in a flood from the ground, spilled over the side of the mountain.

“Fill your drum and get on the bike. Don’t wait for me.”

Selune snorted, “Don’t worry, I had no intention.”

  
He laughs even as the first few descend upon him. Blades curved around his fingers Riddick strikes in sweeping strokes, bellies torn open, both beetles fall aside. He quickly set the drum to the wound of the closest and let it pour out gasoline and blood. He left the drum there and moved to the next cluster to kill. Selune moved. She had no false impressions of her own battle prowess. Formidable yes, but smart as well. She dragged the barrel to the building entryway and over the pile of wooden slats lying just beyond the black doorway. She would barely be able to see if not for the shattered roof, light of three shifting moons.

  
The beetles spat behind her and she rolled out of the way. Acid sizzled through the wood, butter in a skillet. Selune moved and let them climb after her one by one. She sheathed her blade and used a metal rod like a lance, throwing it hard enough that it sailed through the head of one beetle into the body of another before meeting concrete. She slid down and placed her oil drum beneath the drip and retrieved the lance once more. The doorway was too small for more than one of them to push through at a time. She made her stand there, stabbing as they came.   
“Selune!?”

“What!?”

“Just checking,” Riddick said grinning again. He had his own hands full.

  
“Well don’t!”

  
It didn’t take long for the jugs to fill. One problem down, another rising in its place. How to get out of this place when they were being chased by a hoard?

  
“Actually...Riddick!?”

  
“Can you make it to the bike?” He called back.

  
“I think so!”

“Then do it!”

  
Selune tightened her grip on the metal pole and shoved it through the head of one beetle, preventing it from spraying her with acid. She pushed its body back into the coming crowd and let go of the lance in favor of grabbing the oil drum. Faster than she’d ever moved before, Selune rolled to the ground, placing the oil drum over her so that the next beetle would fall against it. Blade in hand, she sliced open its side and stood once more, running as fast as she could with her drum. She hefted it onto the track, taking up the last of the space.

“Riddick, let’s go, there’s no room for yours!”

  
Riddick sliced his way down to her and stripped the pack from his back. His oil drum was over filling. He kicked it over and pushed it in a wide circle around the drill. Selune looked to the mountains, a new wave of creatures headed straight toward them.

“In the pack, there’s flint. Get on the bike.”

Selune did as she was told, reaching into the bag and drawing out the rocks.

“What are these for?” She asked as he ran over and took them from her hands. He jogged to the edge of his gasoline trail and crouched there, waiting. The bugs grew closer, the hair on Selune’s arms began to rise again, the dry air choked her. “Riddick….Riddick!”

He snapped the rocks together, the spark sun bright in the dark desert night. The trail caught fire and Riddick sprinted back to the bike. He kicked it to life and Selune clung to him tightly enough to cause white wrinkles in his black shirt. They sped down the trail they’d made on the way out and before long Selune could feel it on the back of her neck. The fire blazed along the pathway and down into the earth. Oil and insects whose bellies had gorged thereupon caught flame and burst upward. Their expulsion, a fiery purification of the land, a death of the people. By the next winter, no one would be able to survive here. Vahlei, planet of the dead.

  
Selune turned her face into Riddick’s shoulders, the sweat at the back of her neck absorbed into her tank top. He rode faster so that they would not be caught in the wave of heat that followed the explosion, and in time they were back in the village faced with a hundred disbelieving faces. The villager’s eyes moved from the billowing black cloud above them to Riddick and Selune, emotions mixed like paint on a wooden easel.

“We should leave tonight,” Selune whispered.

  
“You should leave right now.”

Aereon. Their heads snapped toward her instantly, to the two pulse guns in her hands. Selune dismounted from the bike as soon as Riddick cut the ignition.

Selune took the pulse guns from Aeron and looked them over, “How?”

“The men who fell on the bridge,” she explained, “the ghosts have no purpose for them. I thought I might return them to the rightful owners should you ever return. And look, you have,” she turned to Riddick, “Your people still need you, Lord Marshal.”

He unhooked the metal bars from the bike and dragged the oil drums further into the village. “My people need to find their own way off of this planet. This isn’t enough.”

“Finish your Journey. That is how you will save them.”

“I’m not interested in saving them!”

Aereon pursed her lips and nodded once. She stepped out of the way and let him drag the oil on, to the edge of the docks, one hundred yards from the armada. One hundred yards from where Vaako’s body lay at rest. Selune stepped up beside him and held the pulse guns tightly in her hands. Wisps of white smoke fluttered around the edges of the dock, twisting and winding with excitement, the ghosts waiting again.  “Are you ready?” She asked breathlessly. This had been a longer night than either of them anticipated.

  
“Move!” He shouted and they charged forward. Riddick, dragging the oil and Selune blowing a hole into the first form that pressed into their way. Every step was precious, every grunted breath that forced Riddick a little closer to the ship, every duck that moved Selune out of harms way. Closer to him. Closer to him.

  
“Down!” She shouted and Riddick dropped instantly. The sailing ax of a ghost ripped passed his head and Selune shot, eviscerating its form. Riddick was up again moments later, the doors of the Armada opening and accepting them home. Aereon gliding in just behind them.

 

...

 

Vaako’s body had been slid into the catacombs directly beside Kyra’s. Riddick could count on one hand the number of people in his life that he had truly loved. One had died for him and the other two were both right there. His hand wavered as it reached to slide his mate’s slab free of the wall and shook even more when he saw him again, perfectly preserved, stripped bare of his chest plate, the wound in his chest bandaged and scribbled over with indelible markings. Riddicks hands found their way first into the braids. Each one slipped over the side of slab across his palm, dull in color, dry like wool. His fingers dipped lower to the purification marks at his throat and pressed, wishing now for a reaction as strong as those Vaako gave in life when he was touched there, when so much as a stiff wind blew his braids across the ever sore marks.

He could smell Selune again before he saw her enter. After a few filthy nights in the desert it was easy now to pick up her true scent under all of the lavender and oils she bathed in. Both equally wild. Equally beautiful. She glided in wearing her own clothes, the shorts and tank top discarded for the normal wear of Necromonger upper class, but his blades were still strapped at her hip. She walked straight to Vaako without looking at Riddick and placed her hands over his chest, sharing him, mourning in tandem with the Furyan without seeking his permission to do so. Riddick found that it didn’t bother him as much as it should.

“I want to come with you,” she said at length. “On your voyage to Furya. I want to come.”

“Why?”

“Because I know you’ll be taking his body with you. And because I’ll suffocate if I stay on this planet any longer.”

“Suppose its my last gift to him to separate him from you even in the afterlife.”

Selune smiled despite the insult, “You don’t believe that.”

Riddick didn’t answer. He let Selune kiss Vaako’s chalky cheek then slowly pushed the slab back into the wall. “We can move him tonight when most of the citizens are asleep. Be ready when I am.”

“Or else you’ll leave,” Selune drifted back toward the door, midnight blue dress trailing behind her. “But what would you do without me?”


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still alive, still in college. Here's an update so that the villagers don't attack!   
> And the story's almost done :)

Selune pressed herself to the concrete wall of the Necro loading bay out of sight of the pilots and officers filtering through. With the roughness at her back, and a pack of rations hanging from her arm, she could imagine that she was on the outside again waiting to be set upon by enormous creatures. But that was over. The memory made her shiver but it was over. She was inside the ship. She had been safe the evening before. And now she was about to dip back into the well of danger in order to commandeer a small ship for the trip to Furya. Beside her, two oil drums remained latched together. On the other side of the wall, the Necromonger armada awaited. All there was to do now was wait for Riddick to bring Vaako's body and the three of them could escape together.  

It would be a much easier task if she had not stolen a ship already and had not, as a consequence, gotten herself banned from the loading bay altogether. It would be easier still if they were not thinking of stowing away with the Necromonger's most beloved son. All these factors together made their mission seem deranged. But Selune had stopped doubting what Riddick could do when they made it off of Vahlei. She stopped doubting, once and for all, what _she_ could do.  

It was late. The moon cast light into the open bay doors and the last of the civilians filtered out. Only a few guards remained. Selune reached down and gripped the side of her thigh, making sure the blade hidden there under her dress was secured tightly. She took a few breaths and thought about Vaako dead. Vaako bleeding out. Vaako in full rigor in her arms. When her eyes began to sting with tears, Selune moved into the bay and walked the lane between the rows of planes.The guards noticed her immediately and charged forward with their weapons in ready position. Her wet cheeks gave them pause but not much. 

“Stop where you are, Dame Vaako!” 

She paused, set down the bag of food, and allowed them to surround her.  

“State your purpose,” the guard yelled again.  

“I want—I want to leave.” 

“You already tried that,” another called from behind her and she spun to face him. “The late Lord Marshal ordered you detained if you ever step foot in this room again.”  

“The late Lord Marshal was my husband,” she cried. “I watched him die.”  

Selune turned slowly in the enclosed circle of soldiers. She let her tears fall and looked at their faces. Taking inventory. Four men, each one heavily armored except for the open space between their helmets and shoulders Two with blasters, and two with battle axes.Which ones could be cowled by her display? Which would need more convincing?  

"Step back, Dame." 

Selune did not budge. "I will give you anything. Anything to let me leave." 

She kept eye contact with the apparent leader and slowly gathered up the hem of her dress between her fingers. She raised it up and revealed the glory of her long brown legs inch by inch. In turn, the guards began to lower their weapons. Men. So simple. Selune raised her dress just half an inch more, then slipped the blade from her thigh and struck the ring leader in the throat before any of them could react. Selune let go off the bloodied blade and ducked quickly. She listened to a blaster shot from her left, blow away an ax wielding guard standing across the tight circle to her right. Two down and two to go.  

Selune swept her leg out and tripped the third, catching his ax in her hands. Perhaps in a stroke of luck, his heavy body fell in front of hers just as the fourth shot his blaster again. The blow landed in the chest plate of the guard, killing him, but the force of it still pushed them both across the hanger. Selune held tight until they smacked against the far wall and plummeted back down to the floor. She picked up the heavy ax and ran. The blaster shot holes in the wall behind her, closer and closer with every few feet until she came to the edge of the tarmac and there was nowhere left to run.  

"Now what, treacherous bitch?" 

Selune turned to face him and hiked the battle ax up higher. "Now you put the gun down and fight me like a man." 

"You fancy yourself a man?" The guard asked, throwing down his blaster and picking up the ax of his first fallen brother.  

Selune smirked, "I wouldn't dream of it." 

 

¥ 

 

Riddick showed up to the hangar ten minutes later, with a little blood on his shirt but no worse for wear. He rolled Vaako's body on a covered metal cart and paused to draw his weapon when he saw the bodies of the armada guards littering the hangar. Selune whistled to get his attention and when he saw her, he marveled at the blood on her own short silver dress. "Did you do all this?" 

"You're not the only one who knows how to have a little fun," she said. Selune came to 

his side and helped him wheel Vaako the rest of the way up the ramp of the small ship she'd chosen for them. "Can you fly one of these?" 

"I can fly anything." 

"Good. Let's get out of here before our absence is noticed." Selune made sure Vaako's body was secured for take off then strapped herself in.  

"Might be a little late for that," Riddick said. He flipped the switches and gunned the bird's engine as a fleet of soldiers burst through the bay doors. The blasters missed taking out the wings by inches as Riddick steered them over the edge of the tarmac and let them careen through space.  Selune grit her teeth as they plummeted into the black starry expanse; she gripped her seatbelts and squeezed her thighs together until finally, finally Riddick pulled up on the joy stick and steered them East, toward Furya. 

"Why didn’t I drive?" She murmured to herself as they leveled out and sped away from the Armada. Their trip to Vahlei had provided the Legion vast with enough fuel to give chase and complete the trip to their Lord Marshal's birthplace, but it was no secret that the Necromonger's had never been fond of that idea. So, would they follow? Would they bother to pursue the band of citizens that they had hated most, simply to recover Vaako's body? With her gone, with _Riddick_ gone, they were free to start a new order, free to kill in the name of a new dynasty. "You're leaving everything behind for this. Power, position, safety." 

"So are you. Besides..." Riddick put the plane in auto pilot and walked toward the back of the ship. He slipped his hand under the cover on the metal slab and drew it back to reveal Kyra laying still on a second tier. "I got everything I need." 

 

The trip to the 'dead planet' proved to be blessedly uneventful. After a week of taking turns on watch duty, Selune and Riddick seemed to agree that no one was coming after them. They were utterly alone in the deep dark of space, with only the dead and stars to keep them company. Selune spent most of her days seated by Vaako's side, twirling the end of his braids in her hands and after a while Riddick began to join her. When she leaned against him, Riddick would wrap an arm around her shoulders.  

They ate dried rations together and Selune regaled him with stories of when Vaako was young, of their first years together on the ship.  

"I was a much better wife to him than what you saw. We were good together, so good," she said one night. "It’s the necromonger way to want more than you have, to kill for it. But I was happy with him. Other wives chose husbands they knew they would leave at first chance, but I wanted someone that I could grow with. And we did. I watched him rise through the ranks and I rose with him. He never shot down my ideas until it was time for the final step. I never stopped to think that maybe he was afraid, not of Zhylaw, but of the pressure. Afraid to be the man they all looked to. But I wasn't content to lavish in second place. He used to kiss me like..." 

"Like what?" Riddick asked, his eyes on her, turning her memories violet. 

"Like I had the key...to his strength, his courage." Selune bit her lips and wrapped up her food. "Just one more kiss. It's all I wanted from him." 

Riddick didn’t know how to comfort her. Vaako's last kiss had been saved for him and he'd be lying if he claimed to feel any remorse for that. They were different people than they'd been that day on Vahlei. It felt like years had passed but it had only been a little over a week since he'd last held his mate's hand and felt warmth there, the pressure of being held in turn. Riddick watched the Dame clean up and wondered just how long it had been for her. When was the last time she'd been in Vaako's presence without a cold glance of hatred falling upon her? Yes, most of it had been her own doing, but none of that mattered now.  

Riddick understood her. And she understood him. There had been a time when Vaako called her 'love' and there had been a time when Riddick called Vaako 'mate'. The three of them were survivors. They were animals. One body. One soul. 

Now broken.  

"Map says we'll be there by morning," he said at length. "Get some rest." 

"What do you think we'll find." 

"Don't know," he looked out the window, timeless dark, the glow of red in the distance, "Maybe nothing, maybe home." 

 

 


End file.
